Is This the Death Of A Party, or the Death Of A Nation?

In the past I have noted I have been around for a while. Sometimes quite aware of events going on around me, sometimes bored with the events going on around me. Wednesday, I was quickly able to write a two paragraph bit about Joe Biden (D-Del) as he finished his acceptance speech. I was excited and thrilled because I saw the most exciting ticket I had seen since John F. Kennedy had won in 1960. (Lyndon Johnson didn't really raise my notice until much later). Thursday night as I watched Barack Obama accept the Democratic nomination for President I was totally floored by his acceptance speech in Denver. I don't have any shame in saying there were tears in my eyes and maybe for the first time since I first pulled the lever as an eighteen year old (ok mailed in my absentee ballot) for Eugene McCarthy I believed.

Friday morning at work I had a short amount of time to quip and speculate with some fellow Kossacks as to whom John McCain would pick. (My pick was Tweedy Bird). I now think I was the only one who got it right. I heard his selection, handled my patients and administrative tasks and decided to find out exactly who Sarah Palin was. After months of hearing the Republicans challenge Obama on his lack of foreign policy knowledge, lack of experience, being unready to assume command on day one, I think my lower jaw left a permanent impression on my keyboard at work. I waited until this morning to write anything because surely there had been a mistake somewhere. This mornings headlines on the Huffington Post glared out McCain's words,; "She's Ready to be President". There is another indentation in my keyboard here at home.

Surely you jest? After the fiery rhetoric spewing forth about Obama from his Republican detractors, this is the best you can come up with? A former two term mayor of an Alaskan town most Americans and a majority of Canadians have never heard of, and two years as Governor of Alaska. Her big claim to fame is she appeared in Vogue magazine December, 2007 (photo above). So why would McCain, a man with years of political experience pick as a running mate a woman who a month ago in an interview with CNBC's Larry Kudlow of Kudlow and Co., as reported in Politico acknowledge her lack of understanding of what the office of Vice President did?

Palin replied: “As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.”

An this person is qualified to assume the reigns of government should something happen to McCain if he was elected? (McCain on the day of his announcement turn 72 happy birthday Senator). I can only speculate like so many other pundits, but I will decline except for what I mentioned in this article's title. Any further speculation would be considered rude, crude and somewhat obscene, so let's keep it dignified.

The only justification for this nomination is that the Republican Party is dying. Constantly what I have observed from the McSame camp is a constant battle of one ups man ship with the Obama camp as McSame desperately tries to steal a spotlight from Obama that he should well have shied away from. Browse the web, listen to the radio and TV, read whatever paper you may desire, there will be many analysts with justifications as well as derision of this pick. However, none can come closer then a Republican Party drowning in the blind support of Bush/Cheney over the past eight years, once in power, who then made promises and broke them now sooner then they had been made in their pursuit of greed, ideology, corruption, and avarice. Like a drowning victim they are flailing about endangering any and all who attempt rescue.

McCain bills himself a maverick, different then Bush, yet Sarah Palin believes global warming is a farce, believes in creationism and advocates it's teaching in school, declares herself as an Evangelistic Christian, supports all the policies of Big Oil, does not believe in a woman's right to choose, is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. Is this the clone of George W. Bush? Not quite, she's a female, but damned close to a clone. When in their death throes, many animals will eat their young and so Republicans appear to be doing just that according to the Washington Post's Anne E. Kornblut.

Though it was high in shock value, the Palin pick left bruised feelings
among the short-list contenders who were not picked -- and infuriated some
Republican officials who privately said McCain had gone out on a limb,
unnecessarily, without laying the groundwork for such an unknown. Two senior
Republican officials close to Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty said they had both
been rudely strung along and now "feel manipulated."
"They now know that they
were used as decoys, well after McCain had decided not to pick them," one
Republican involved in the process said.

In a desperate attempt by the McSame camp to woo what they call the "disenfranchised Hillary supporters", they believe by offering them a woman candidate they can bring them over in a large enough group to tilt the election in their favor. The only problem here is that Sarah Palin is no Hillary R. Clinton. This is not to say she isn't bright, intelligent with a potential future, only time will tell. If however, the McSame camp proves to be correct in their wildly flung haymaker punch at the Obama camp, and the voters are swayed strictly by a skirt, and not the woman whose wearing it then the second half of my titles question is true and we are witnessing the death of a nation.